iPhone ‘Unavailable’ In Both US & UK Apple Stores

It was the only place left to buy an iPhone and now it’s out of stock too…

Yep, Apple US and UK stores are officially listing both the 8GB and 16GB versions of the famous phone as “Currently Unavailable” and – despite cries to the contrary from O2 – I suspect this will be the last we see of any tangible iPhone stock before the new handset is announced (seemingly inevitably) in June.

Furthermore, with both high street branches and now Apple itself removing their stock well ahead of the announcement of a formal iPhone successor it has to be said – either by design or co-incidence – it will prevent less savvy customers coughing up the cash and signing a 18 month/two year contract for what will soon be a legacy model.

Can we expect the launch of a 3G iPhone fairly quickly given this turn of events? Well, I’m not going to stick my head out this time (as I have done fairly successfully many times before) but I would suggest Apple, O2, the Carphone Warehouse et al won’t want to be running dry on Apple handsets for any considerable length of time…

”’In yet more related news”’ SingTel has signed up to distribute the iPhone in Singapore, India, Australia, and Philippines. With Vodafone already confirmed to sell the iPhone in 10 countries including Austria and India those exclusive agreements seen with the first gen handset are looking increasingly perilous.

”’Update:”’ Aussie network Optus will ”also” sell the iPhone Down Under. So much for carrier exclusivity.